


Stay Away From Fire

by darlingswanscharmedbygold



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Captain Theif friendship, Drinking, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Killian acts parental, Neal is cheeky, Parent Captain Hook | Killian Jones, Post-Rumple death, Protective Father, Rum, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:55:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9175165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingswanscharmedbygold/pseuds/darlingswanscharmedbygold
Summary: Following his father's death, Neal hasn't felt himself. Killian decides to cheer him up with some rum. It leads to a heart to heart about the real reason why Killian argued with him over the lighter back in Neverland. Perhaps Killian still sees the little boy in him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This came to me when I was watching the scene where Killian and Neal fight over the lighter. Neal says “Now’s not the time to try to impress Emma” to which Killian replies “That’s not why I’m doing it”. While, I’m sure that was why, I allowed my mind of Killian still viewing Neal as his son to get away from me and this transpired. Set as though when they returned from Neverland, Regina didn’t have to send everyone back to the Enchanted Forest.

Killian knew how down Neal had been after the death of his father. He had tried to keep a brave face for Henry, but it hadn’t been easy. Luckily for the man, his son also had two mothers and seemed to be spending lots of time with them anyway, so he was able to mourn alone. The pirate had about enough. He loved Neal, viewed him as his own son even. Their time together had been so long ago, but he still thought of it fondly (well up until the end). He wanted to get him out of his funk. So, he did what any good pirate would do. He went to the only liquor store in all of Storybrooke, purchased the largest bottle of rum that he could find and showed up at Neal’s new apartment.

 

The man answered the door, clearly looking a little disheveled. “Killian? What’s going on?”

“I figured we could spend some quality time.”

“Nice thought, but really...”

Killian held up the brown paper bag. “I brought rum.” In that moment, he actually saw a smile go across Neal’s face. Normally on Henry got those.

“Come in, I think I have glasses somewhere…”

 

Killian entered the apartment and looked around. There wasn’t much there. Belle had kept Rumple’s old house and of course had asked Neal to move in, but he had declined. He needed to be alone. He sent for some of his furniture in his New York apartment and told his landlord to junk the rest. He had spent most of his time on the run, few things to him were sentimental to him.

  
“So, glasses?” Killian asked, settling down on the sofa and removing the bottle from the bag.

“Housewarming gift from Snow…or Mary Margaret, still unsure of what she wants to be called,” Neal replied as he rummaged through the cabinets. “One of many, actually. I think she just needs someone to mother. Emma doesn’t give her many opportunities.”

“Can’t imagine how awkward that whole situation is, having parents the same age as you.”

Neal bit his tongue from mentioning that technically now they were around the same age and he still thought of him as a second dad. “Suppose you’re right.” He found the glasses and walked over, setting them onto the rickety coffee table. He watched as Killian poured out the drinks.

“To your father,” the raven-haired man offered, lifting his glass in a toast.

“To my father.” Neal clinked and sipped his, slowly. He didn’t want to get drunk, he had found that drinking only numbed the pain temporarily. Plus, Henry did not need an alcoholic for a father. “Never thought I’d hear those words escape your mouth.”

“We may have been enemies, but I owe my life to him now, I suppose.”

“I suppose.”

 

The men were silent for a moment as they stared at their drinks.

 

“So, how are things with you and Emma?” Killian asked. “As I recall, I told you I was stepping back.”

“I haven’t had much time to really think about dating. I don’t know. How about you? She showing any interest in you? After all, at the end of the day, it really is her choice.”

“No, her focus is on Henry these days…as it should be.”

“He’s a great kid.” Neal gulped down the remainder of his drink and allowed the man beside him to pour him another. The drinks were alright, but if he was being honest, he needed a cigarette. He set the glass down and traveled to the window, propping it open.

 

Killian watched as he dug through his pockets and retrieved a small carton and a lighter, similar to the one they had fought over in Neverland. The pirate instantly winced.

 

“What are you doing?”

“Having a smoke.” He realized that cigarettes were probably foreign to Killian. They had cigars and pipes where they came from. “It’s a cigarette, like if you were going to smoke a pipe with tobacco. Just wrapped up.”

Killian walked over and held his palm out. Neal handed one of the cigarettes over and allowed him to examine it. It was small and tan. “I didn’t take you one for smoking.”

Neal shrugged. “Bad habit. Trying to quit, for Henry’s sake but it’s not easy.” He pulled out another and went to light it, only to have Killian put out his hook to stop it. The curly haired man shot him a glance.

“If you insist on smoking that bloody thing, at least allow me to light it for you.”

“Why? Back in Neverland you couldn’t even light the coconut.”

“Well as I recall, you couldn’t either, just give it to me.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so, Baelfire!”

 

Neal raised an eyebrow. He had heard the pirate call out orders before, but this seemed different. His father had yelled at him like that before, occasionally. It was paternal, not out of anger. More frustration because their child was being so damn stubborn. Not to mention only a select few people called him Baelfire, the ones who knew him like that and Belle (because Rumple had and old habits die hard).

 

“Baelfire, huh?” Neal gave him his cheeky grin.

“Don’t be smart.”

“And because you said so. Cliché line. What am I, 5? You gonna spank me too?”

“Don’t push it,” Killian grumbled.

Neal held back a laugh. “What is it? Back in Neverland, I get you were trying to impress Emma but…”

“It wasn’t to impress bloody Swan!” The pirate exploded. “You could burn yourself with the blasted thing, you nearly did while lighting the coconut.”

 

Neal paused, his sassy smile being replaced by a touched one. Killian cared, he did still think of him as his son. He had wondered, his actions hadn’t really proved it until just then. Maybe they could be a family, just as he had wanted centuries ago. But he also knew the pirate wasn’t one for sappy speeches, he wasn’t either. He passed the lighter over, holding up the cigarette.

 

“Go right ahead.”

 

Killian smiled. He had made Emma show him how to use one after they returned, in case a situation ever called for one. If he was going to stay in this strange world, he figured he’d learn all there was to know. He got the lighter to flare up and pretended as if he was going to light the cigarette, only to blow the flame out and grabbed the cancer stick from his hand.

 

“Tobacco is terrible for your health. You’re not smoking these. Give me the rest of them.”

“I can’t just quit cold turkey…”

“Then we call Swan and ask if she knows of any ways to help you quit. Just hand them over, now or I can find a way to steal them. I am a pirate after all.”

 

Neal rolled his eyes, much like a moody teenager, and handed them over. Killian shoved them into his jacket pocket, he wasn’t stupid. He knew if he threw them out in the apartment, the man would just dig them out. No, they’d be disposed of in the bins behind Granny’s.

 

“You’ll let me poison my liver with rum, but damaging my lungs is a no-go?” Neal teased.

“Alright, that’s it. No more rum.” He saw Neal’s eyebrows shoot up. “For you. My liver’s probably dead by now. You can have goat’s milk or something. Clean water is not of little supply around here, it would seem.”

 

Neal just laughed, he had to. It was the first time he had truly done so in months. Maybe, just maybe, having Killian around wouldn’t be so bad


End file.
